In most circumstances, the driver of a vehicle (e.g., a car, truck, SUV, or other vehicle) has adequate visibility to permit the safe operation of his or her vehicle. Sometimes, however, drivers may encounter situations in which their ability to see the vehicle's path and obstacles within the vehicle's path is less than perfect.
A variety of obstacle detection and avoidance (“ODA”) systems have been developed that alert a driver to obstacles near or within the vehicle's projected path, and/or that provide automatic braking in such events. However, in certain situations, a driver may wish to override the automatic braking of such ODA systems. Accordingly, it may be preferable to have an improved determination of when a driver wishes to override such ODA systems, and/or other automatic vehicle control systems, so as to selectively return control to the driver when the driver is attempting such an override.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved method and apparatus for overriding an automatic vehicle control system so as to selectively return vehicle control to the driver under such circumstances. Furthermore, other desirable features and functions of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.